Tag Archives: parliament act

Opinion: Lib Dem MPs must vote against the health reforms – not for health, but for democracy

Lately, we have heard much about Andrew Lansley’s proposed reforms of the NHS, both from within the party and without.

Grassroots site ‘Conservative Home’ writer Tim Montgomerie came out in opposition to the bill, calling it ‘unnecessary and unpopular’. Lansley’s supporters have been less professional in their counter-briefing.

Lib Dems on all sides are throwing their all in to the debate about the biggest shake up to our health service in decades. I’ve found it difficult to have an opinion on either side – so as the debate has flamed around me, i’ve noticed a trend that I find very

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 14 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – The secret concessions behind the 1911 Parliament Act

Before he departed for his blogging holiday, The Voice’s Mark Pack had an interesting piece on the Total Politics site looking at the 100-year history of the 1911 Parliament Act.

Here’s an extract from Mark’s piece:

The 1911 Act had its immediate cause in the 1909 People’s Budget from Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, which raised taxes for the richest to pay for military armaments and social works. As he put it:

“This is a war Budget. It is for raising money to wage implacable warfare against poverty and squalidness.”

The sums now seem modest – including the equivalent in today’s

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | Leave a comment

Moving to an elected second chamber – a loss of expertise, or just privilege?

August 2011 is the centenary of the Parliament Act, the supposedly stop gap measure to regulate relations between the two houses of parliament until an elected House of Lords could be created. The fact that we are still fighting for a democratic second chamber means it is all too easy to lose sight of the debates about what we want the second chamber to actually do. Unlock Democracy wants a fully elected second chamber capable of scrutinising and revising legislation as well as delaying it where necessary. It should be a deliberative chamber that builds on the …

Posted in Parliament | Also tagged , , and | 9 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • David Allen
    Yes. The Lib Dems have become a Janus Party - Facing both ways. There is a lot of detailed social-liberal centre-left word-play, designed to keep the activist...
  • Richard
    Wow – four political philosophers – Mill, Kroptokin, Rawls and Clegg referred to in a single article !!! As Nick Clegg discovered in 2010 and Keir Starmer i...
  • Tristan Ward
    The original article deplores political opportunism, and suggests Lib Dm MPs are indulging in it by opposing Labour's IHT reforms and imposirtion of VAT in pri...
  • Tristan Ward
    @Mick Taylor I didn't say Kropotkin was a communist. I said he was a "proponent of anarchist communism". Which, for what it is worth, is what Wikipedia ...
  • Cllr Gordon Lishman
    I agree with Ben. William: Ben is at the forefront of doing exactly what you ask - wait for the forthcoming book he's editing and see what you think. Publicat...